It's not just European markets that are getting some Amazon-related goodies today. The Appstore has been updated to version 4.0 (technically, version 4.0.634.0, but who's counting right?) and brings with it an improved UI, the ability to remove items from the My Apps section and, perhaps most importantly to Artem, a fix for a major battery drain bug. All good news!

The new UI doesn't look too much different from the old version, aside from getting rid of a lot of the white, opting instead for the darker theme that's more in line with the Kindle Fire UI. Amazon still continues to favor blacks and oranges. One can only assume Jeff Bezos really likes Halloween. Functionally, not much has changed, but hopefully it will be a better experience. It certainly looks nicer.

Eric is a snarky technophile with a taste for the unusual. When he's not obsessing about Android, you can usually find him obsessing about movies, psychology, or the perfect energy drink. Eric weaves his own special blend of snark, satire, and comedy into all his articles.

Comments

Guest

Maybe they could fix those annoying "New App Available" messed when you have no new apps. Sometimes, it's an update that's available, but mostly I think it gets triggered if you have apps in your account that you haven't installed on a registered device. Very annoying.

http://twitter.com/TheJauntyJester Jaunty Jester

More importantly, ensure that when you say you don't want any notifications from them - you don't get any. Checked that box so many times and I still get notified about updates, etc.

squiddy20

^This. Seriously, the only way I've found to actually stop the notifications from happening is to turn off *all* notifications. Or uninstall the app. Just sad that they can't/couldn't fix that in the 6 months or more it's been going on.

Matthew Fry

I haven't seen the terrible battery bug but hopefully this fixes the still ridiculous battery usage of the appstore during normal (non-appstore) use.

i think that is the battery bug. that's the reason i uninstalled it on most of my devices months ago and have it frozen on my phone, anyway.

http://www.facebook.com/eatonjb Eaton J. Blumenstein

I agree, but i am willing to give this a test. I stop buying things from them also, go back to Playstore. I downloaded the new version from there site. seems sluggish as heck like the old one.

moelsen8

the lag seemed worse to me actually on the new one.

Matthew Fry

I want to get away from it too but there are like 5 core apps that I got back in the old days when the FAOTD was something awesome and I can't let them go and it'd cost me like ~$30 to pay on the play store.

Simon Belmont

For what it's worth, I am not seeing the update yet either. I even tried checking for the update and it says none is available.

I seem to be on a rather old version of the Amazon Appstore. Something like 2.3.5.

Simon Belmont

Ugh. Replied to the wrong thread.

Anyway, I never noticed a battery issue with the Amazon Appstore either. On several devices.

Matthew Fry

I had that too... weird. Anyway the link that moelsen8 provided below got me to the 4.0 version.

http://www.facebook.com/bookie.crook Tim Crook

I'm still on version 2.3 and it says update not available

Sven Enterlein

That! I'm on ICS custom ROM for the TF101

http://DanielJLewis.net/about Daniel J. Lewis

Thanks! That's what I had to do to get the update.

Ashish

I'm on version 2.6.53!!!! No updates for me either.. N by looking at the screenshots, this seems to big UI change.. I guess the version varies by device?

Ashish

Alright, I so I got it finally...Had to go to amazon's website and manually re download the app...The new UI is really cool..

Knlegend1

Thanks I was getting the same thing.

http://DanielJLewis.net/about Daniel J. Lewis

Do they finally show changelogs for app updates? I'm tired of looking to the website to see what changes for each app update.

Paul_Werner

I'm really hoping for the same but I couldn't find it. Did you see it?

MyNameIsLOS

Check out changelog droid. It shows logs for all installed and/or updates.

http://twitter.com/2LadyDi Lady Di

I just downloaded it thanks to moelsen8 and it's sluggish I agree to that. I also agree to the notifications of "ghost updates" and the changelog for apps when updating. Now, can I revert back to the old if I don't like the "new" app store? Google Play FTW!!

http://DanielJLewis.net/about Daniel J. Lewis

It was terribly slow before the update.

http://twitter.com/2LadyDi Lady Di

I wasn't seeing the slowness on my phone SGSII (2.3.6 OS) until this update in this post. It is horribly slow on my tablet which is 4.0.3

leoingle

Does anybody care unless all you want is games? It has turned into a game market.

http://DanielJLewis.net/about Daniel J. Lewis

Amazon.com giftcards are easy to get (especially with programs like Swagbucks), so it can be "cheaper" to buy the app from Amazon instead of from Google Play.

leoingle

WTH does that have to do with what I said??

http://DanielJLewis.net/about Daniel J. Lewis

The Appstore has most of the same apps as Google Play. But the difference is that you can use Amazon giftcards, which are easy to earn, on the Amazon Appstore for any kind of app without having to charge a credit card.

On Google Play, you can only use Google Play giftcards or charge your credit card. It's not nearly as versatile or flexible to spend gift money on Amazon apps.

leoingle

Ok, that's great and all but really has. Nothing to do with what I said. The FAOTD is always a stupid game now. The top 20 free and paid apps are all freaking games. It used to not be like that. I don't even use the app anymore except to get Tunein Pro and Business Calendar when it was FAOTD.

http://DanielJLewis.net/about Daniel J. Lewis

It matters because you made a sweeping generalization that Amazon Appstore is mostly games. It's not. There are plenty of helpful apps in it, and it's potentially "cheaper" to buy those non-game apps from Amazon.

leoingle

I dont agree, but everybody has their own opinion. Plus Amazon always gets updates later than Google. Another strike against them, still no changelogs neither. Plus i dont have to go out of my way to get discounts or cards to buy a couple of 2 or 3 dollar apps every so often. But enjoy your game store.

carbonated_turtle

Now if only Google would finally take a stab at fixing Play. I wish I could go back to the old market, because at least then I could browse new apps as they're released, and not just the TOP new apps, which are several months old in some cases. I can't even remember the last time I bothered trying to navigate the mess that is Google Play. I just bypass the bullshit and come to sites like this to find what I need.

Stas

Will they ever come to Canada ?

Julius Besser

There actually is a new functionality that I thought was nice:
If, while browsing either your app list or cloud app list, you can long press on either to remove it from the device (uninstall) or to remove it from your cloud (finally get rid of all those horrible FAOTD that you hated).

kabloink

It's as slow as molasses on my phone. It's nearly impossible to scroll through the all app list. The update is basically useless on my phone. I reverted back to the old app. I hope it's not going to be a forced update. If so, I may have to give up on the appstore.